And
if GOD does require the sinner—dead in sin—that he
should take the first step, then he requireth just that
which renders salvation as impossible under the gospel as
ever it was under the law, seeing man is as unable to
believe as he is to obey, and is just as much without power
to come to Christ as he is without power to go to heaven
without Christ. The power must be given to him of the
Spirit. He lieth dead in sin: the Spirit must quicken him.
He is bound hand and foot, fettered by transgression; the
Spirit must cut his bonds, and then he will leap to liberty.
GOD must come and dash the iron bars out of their sockets,
and then he can escape afterwards, but unless the first
thing be done for him, he must perish as surely under the
gospel as he would have done under the law.

I would cease to preach,
if l believed that God, in the matter of salvation, required
anything whatever of man which He Himself had not also
engaged to furnish.. I am the messenger. I tell you the
master's message; if you do not like the message quarrel
with the Bible, not with me; so long as I have Scripture on
my side I will dare and defy you to do anything against me.
Salvation is of the Lord. The Lord has to apply it, to make
the unwilling willing, to make the ungodly godly, and bring
the vile rebel to the feet of Jesus, or else salvation will
never be accomplished. Leave that one thing undone, and you
have broken the link of the chain, the very link which was
just necessary to its integrity. Take away the fact that God
begins the good work, and that He sends us what the old
divines call preventing grace-take that away, and you have
spoilt the whole of salvation; you have just taken the
key-stone out of the arch, and down it tumbles. There is
nothing left then.